Any downside to SRB upgrades?

sinix · Post by **sinix** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 9:11 pm

I'm finally within a few weeks of being able to order a Pulsar II. My last few questions are the following:

1. What are the negatives to upgrading a Pulsar II with a SRB add-on?

2. Does the SRB add-on eat up any more PCI bandwidth?

3. Does the add-on require an addition IRQ or drivers?

My immediate situation allows the purchase of the Pulsar II. If I held out another month or so, I could get the PowerPulsar. I'm quite sure I can use most of the power of the SRB option in the future, but maybe not an additional 3 dsp chips on top of that.

Money-wise the Pulsar II + SRB is still about $550 cheaper than the PowerPulsar.

When your talking about 12 DSP chips vs. 15 is the difference all that great? Can a top of the line Intel PC support the PCI bandwidth to run max'd out a 15 DSP chip card?

Please give me some pro's and con's. Talk me into spending some more $$

Thanks -

sinix

Post by **garyb** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 11:03 pm

well.... no probs with expansion.everything works like one card.when it comes to dsp more is always nice.....i have pulsar1 w/2(pulsar1)srb=12dsp's.the three cards are happy with 850mhz athlon on an asus k7v mobo (lousy via chipset).i never (almost)run out of dsp's,but i can do it.power pulsar could be expanded 2 more times. hmm, ya can't go wrong.i might aim for max long term expansion.........that's how they get you.

Peezahj · Post by **Peezahj** » Thu Oct 11, 2001 11:33 pm

The Power Pulsar is, I believe, a Scope SRB, meaning that it has on-board ram and will allow you to use a lot more memory-based devices like reverbs and samplers before causing problems with the PCI bus. Just adding an SRB causes no additional strain on the PCI bus since it communicates with the main card via the stdm cable, and it can share IRQ with the first Pulsar.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Oct 12, 2001 8:42 am

PowerPulsar is a SCOPE2 board with Pulsar "Classic" I/O plate, and Pulsar2 software.

And, at least in the US, there is no way you could get a PulsarII+ScopeXTC(SRB) board for the same price as PowerPulsar:

PulsarII - $1111 + ScopeXTC(SRB) - $2333 = $3444

PowerPulsar Classic - $2444

Really, the PowerPulsar is a great deal, for only $111 more you get the Classic I/O plate, and the Pulsar software (with free ProPack).

Peezjah is right, adding more cw DSP cards won't hurt your PCI bus. It is suggested you put all your cw DSP boards on the same IRQ, so it will not take another IRQ, and in fact, I can't think of any negative to adding more DSP or I/O -- except maybe draining your bank account

sinix · Post by **sinix** » Fri Oct 12, 2001 10:20 am

I was thinking of the Pulsar SRB board as the upgrade for $800 or so.

- sinix

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Oct 12, 2001 10:39 am

Ahh, okay I see what you mean, but:

PulsarII=6DSPs
PulsarXTC(SRB)=6DSPs --> 12DSPs total
(Luna2=3DSPs...) --> 15DSPs

PowerPulsar comes with 15DSPs... so yes, now I completely see your point

So for $1111+$777+$333=$2221, you would have 3 cards and save $111 over the PowerPulsar, with the only disadvantage being, you couldn't add anymore DSP to that theoretical 3 card setup, whereas the PowerPulsar route, you would still have one more.

But yeah, I get you now, and the PulsarXTC/SRB is probably the best choice for any Luna/Pulsar user looking for more DSP.

joe_90 · Post by **joe_90** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 5:26 am

perhaps, a simpler view may also help:0

i started out with a single pulsar2...found myself running out of DSP's very quickly..
I could easily move tracks into my sequencer as audio, but found myself having to return to tweak and re-record the track far too often..

so i also went for the SRB/pulsar2 expansion, giving 12 DSPs...and it made a huge difference to the way i was working...

so far ive only maxed the DSP's out on one occasion, when running several reverbs ( no suprises there), but generally it performs exceptionally well...

but , if you can afford the extra cash, another 3 dsps' could boost your productivity exactly when you need it..

i often find that having to consolidate the project into audio tracks, when i wasnt planning on doing so, interupts my creative flow often drastically.

joe

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 10:44 am

ok, I'm dumb...what's SRB?

Lotuz · Post by **Lotuz** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 11:05 am

Sonic Rocket Booster: a DSP card without I/O.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Oct 16, 2001 12:01 pm

And SRB's no longer exist really -- now replaced by XTC boards (same thing, only can be used without another CW card now via XTC software).